Attack of the Fifty Foot Bunny!

My garden was plagued last year!

By the Fifty Foot Bunny!!!

Okay, so yeah, that is an exaggeration...
But not by much!

My husband saw the bunny the other day.  It's as big as my cat.  Which doesn't mean much until you see my cat.  She's a Maine Coon mix and weighs about 16 pounds.

Last summer the giant bunny ate my kohlrabis and nibbled on just about every other plant in my garden.  This year I'm trying my hand at growing some bunny favorties; kohlrabi, lettuce, cabbage, carrots and spinach.  Now I just have to try to figure out a way to keep this monstrous rabbit from eating the food right off my table.

Last year I tried spreading cat scat around at the whole in my neighbors yard where I knew the rabbit entered my yard.  Didn't scare this thing.  It plays chicken with my neighbors very vocal Min Pin.

We also shaved this fuzzy girl in the backyard.  It really looked like a cat exploded.  Did nothing to deter this brazen bunny!

I found this recipe.  I might give it a try.  I'll just have to make sure I wash things really well before I eat them.  Since I don't like spicy food!  This could cause some funny reactions.  My toddler really enjoys eating yellow pear tomatoes fresh from the garden!

Red cayenne, Jalapeno or habanera fresh peppers can be used in the preparation, but be careful if you use habanera because the capsaicin concentration is high enough to cause serious damage to the preparer! Jalapenos should be hot enough to keep the bunnies away. The quickest way to come up with a concoction is to take three fresh peppers and run them through a food processor with enough water added to create a liquid. Pour the liquid through a cheesecloth mesh into a glass quart jar. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive or other vegetable oil, a squirt of Elmer’s glue and a drop or two of liquid dishwashing detergent. Use one part of the concentration to 10 parts water. Shake well just before application. This should discourage the bunnies without hurting them. If not, then make the concentration stronger, to 30 percent, or just go up to the cayenne pepper for extra heat. Be sure to reapply after new growth appears or after a good rain.

Who needs pots or store bought vanilla!?!

In my ongoing quest to become a DIY homegrowing Diva, I decided to start my own seedlings this year.  My problem was I don't have a lot of money to invest in items to grow said seedlings.  I needed pots to start my seedlings. 

Or so I thought!

Hello my best friend or my arch nemesis (this is yet to be decided), Pinterest!

Here's what I found.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/18/ad/b7/18adb7540fd998c5e5f9177f575350b2.jpg

Newspaper!!  I have lots of newspaper!!!  I get three each week!

I rolled my paper around some glass jars I had.  I won't lie.  It's rather tedious.  I got a little more careless with each one I rolled.  I don't look forward to rolling more as I have lots more plants to start, but I LOVE the price.

Here's what mine look like now, about a week after I planted them.

 I've got lots of baby plants!  Using paper pots hasn't appeared to have impaired my growth at all.  I don't know how they kept their pots so round in the original photo. 

You can also see a slight oranging around the edges of the newspaper on the originals.  Mine have more orange around the edges.  I used an orange sharpie to label the paper pots.  However, none of my writing has run and it's below the spots where the paper is turning orange so I think the two are unrelated. 

More updates to come on newspaper pots. 


My other project...vanilla!

DIY Natural is another site I frequent.  I get their update emails.  Last winter I got a post about making your own vanilla.  I thought this would have been a great Christmas gift, but I didn't get it in time.  You see, it takes a couple months to, I don't know the right word, ferment (maybe that's the right word.)

My vanilla was started on 2/20.  I had the beans and my neighbor had the vodka.  Which is a great

way to reduce costs when you're overhauling yourself into a DIY Homegrowing Diva, find a partner in crime!  Sure I won't get all the vanilla, but what if it turned out to be nasty!  Not that I think it will, because here we are less than a month later.

I sliced the length of the beans.  That took some care and my fingers smelled like vanilla for a day or two after.  Not a bad scent to carry around!  When I initially put the beans into the bottle and smelled the concoction I would say that it was 98% vodka and 2% vanilla.  I just took a sniff after taking the picture today and I would change those numbers to  roughly 40% vodka and 60% vanilla. 

I really don't think this is going to turn out badly!  It's so hard to wait!  Every time I shake the bottle I want to make something with a delicious vanilla flavor!

DIY Natural broke down the cost of making your own vanilla.  It's insanely cheaper and not very difficult to make your own.  I doubt I'll ever be buying vanilla again.